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The figures mirror results from the 2011 census in which seaside resorts dominated the list of areas with the highest proportion of divorcees, with Hastings, Blackpool and Torbay topping the list.

Lawyers in Weston-super-Mare said that although the courts were noticeably busy they had not previously detected a higher level of unhappiness in the town.

Morwenna Homewood, who practises family law at BRGP solicitors in the town, said the figure had come as a surprise.

“It may be that there are people who move down looking for a new life and it doesn’t work out,” she said.

“There are a lot of people who move down from Birmingham and the Midlands and settle down here – it is idyllic when the sun is shining.”

But she added that the explanation could be more mundane.

“The court covers a very large area, there are quite a few solicitors’ firms in Weston and it may be that people prefer to come here rather than Bristol,” she suggested.

Transformed from a small village to a popular resort in the 19th century, Weston suffered from the closure of seafront hotels, some of which became drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres.

But in the last decade the town has expanded markedly, with thousands of new houses, attracting families away from Bristol with cheaper prices.

Lord McNally, the family justice minister, said:"All too often I hear stories of families going through expensive and traumatic court hearings but we know that when working out how to split assets and arrange time with the children, mediation is a far simpler and cheaper approach for everyone and leads to better outcomes."

The top ten courts for the number of divorce petitions filed in the last year were: